Apple stock broke the $500 barrier for the first time during Monday trading, and ended the day at $502.60 which gives the world's most valuable company a substantial leg up when compared to next-closest Exxon Mobil Corp.

The Cupertino, Calif., company rallied to close up $9.18 from Friday and now has a market capitalization of roughly $465 billion, which is 17 percent more than Exxon's $400 billion. The two companies have bandied the title of world's most valuable company back and forth since August 2011, though Apple rocketed to a commanding lead in January following a record-busting holiday quarter.

As first reported by AppleInsider, Apple is now worth more than rivals Microsoft and Google combined.

Much of the company's meteoric rise can be attributed to near overwhelming demand for iOS devices like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

In the quarter ending in December 2011, Apple earned $13.06 billion on sales of 37 million iPhones, 15 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs. Overall revenue for the period was $46.33 billion.

During the last quarter, the iPhone saw massive profit margins that equalled 36 percent of all worldwide mobile phone revenue and 74 percent of industry EBIT on sales that accounted for only 9 percent of units sold.

The iPad was also a major player last quarter and continues to see dominating sales worldwide despite an onslaught of Android-based tablets like Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Amazon's Kindle Fire.

And the beauty of this is, I've never seen a single Apple executive ever show up on a CNBC, or a CNN, or a FOX, or a BLOOMBERG, etc to tout the company's strategy, vision, mission, values, stock price, blah blah.

They just do what they do, well, quietly, minding their own business, letting the chips fall where they may.

Bill Gates should thank his lucky stars Apple canned Jobs. I really think we are seeing what would have happened in the 1980s/1990s if Apple had executed. What a different world it would have been.

I disagree, I think Jobs getting his exit papers, helped get Apple to this situation, since it put the fire back in Jobs belly to regain the company and achieve his goals. Btw Gates loaned Apple money in 1996-7 and this stop Apple from going into bankruptcy, do you want to say he should never had given that loan or instead of 'non-voting stock' demanded 'voting stock'.

Let stop bagging Gates, because if Gates was not around, Apple may not be here today.

Btw before you start saying, I am a MS fanboy, I have Apple stock and I have owned Apple products from 1998!

Just not going into 'reality distortion field' with concern to Gates and MS.

Apple earned $1 out of every $5 US consumers spent on electronics this holiday

So what does this imply for future growth and stock price? It is amazing that Apple has raked in 20% of all electronics revenues without even operating in some of the more traditional sub-markets (TV, audio, etc.). But that doesn't leave a huge amount of room for growth (unless you expect Apple to own 80% of the entire consumer electronics category). Maybe I'm confused on the definition of "electronics" sales sector?

I thought the stock was getting inflated, but that they've got a huge amount of room to grow in new categories; now from this article it sounds like they're already taking in a huge amount of the field. I realize this is only in the holiday season. But still, 'order-of-magnitude', they can only grow a maximum of 500% (yes, which is huge), and even then only by taking 100% of the market (or growing the segment).

Although it would sure be nice to see Apple-designed toasters and cars and cameras and just about anything with any kind of UI (which is just about everything I guess...).

Bill Gates should thank his lucky stars Apple canned Jobs. I really think we are seeing what would have happened in the 1980s/1990s if Apple had executed. What a different world it would have been.

Quote:

Originally Posted by souliisoul

I disagree, I think Jobs getting his exit papers, helped get Apple to this situation, since it put the fire back in Jobs belly to regain the company and achieve his goals. Btw Gates loaned Apple money in 1996-7 and this stop Apple from going into bankruptcy, do you want to say he should never had given that loan or instead of 'non-voting stock' demanded 'voting stock'.

Let stop bagging Gates, because if Gates was not around, Apple may not be here today.

Btw before you start saying, I am a MS fanboy, I have Apple stock and I have owned Apple products from 1998!

Just not going into 'reality distortion field' with concern to Gates and MS.

The part about Microsoft saving Apple from bankruptcy is not true. Apple had over a billion dollars in the bank at the time - more than enough to keep them afloat for years, even if they continued to burn money.

The first part, I agree with. There's no way of knowing how Jobs would have done if he had stayed at Apple. His being forced to leave and then experience at NeXT and Pixar may have been what turned him into a superstar.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

So what does this imply for future growth and stock price? It is amazing that Apple has raked in 20% of all electronics revenues without even operating in some of the more traditional sub-markets (TV, audio, etc.). But that doesn't leave a huge amount of room for growth (unless you expect Apple to own 80% of the entire consumer electronics category). Maybe I'm confused on the definition of "electronics" sales sector?

I thought the stock was getting inflated, but that they've got a huge amount of room to grow in new categories; now from this article it sounds like they're already taking in a huge amount of the field. I realize this is only in the holiday season. But still, 'order-of-magnitude', they can only grow a maximum of 500% (yes, which is huge), and even then only by taking 100% of the market (or growing the segment).

Although it would sure be nice to see Apple-designed toasters and cars and cameras and just about anything with any kind of UI (which is just about everything I guess...).

Well, there's always room for the iCamera, the iFridge, the iStove, iConditioning, the iToilet, the iRack (let's see if anybody gets that one), and, finally, the iCar.

Room for growth aplenty.

Steve Job's vision was so forward thinking that he used to park in disabled spots before he became sick.

And the beauty of this is, I've never seen a single Apple executive ever show up on a CNBC, or a CNN, or a FOX, or a BLOOMBERG, etc to tout the company's strategy, vision, mission, values, stock price, blah blah.

They just do what they do, well, quietly, minding their own business, letting the chips fall where they may.

Something for other companies and their CEOs to ponder.

Not to mention how many 'concept videos' and 'concept products' are continually touted by other companies, hyped, and never see the light of day. Apple is efficient in that it doesn't deal in bullshit. Here's our event, here's a fully functional, no BS demo of this amazing thing that will redefine the industry yet again raise the bar on everything- Oh and it will be in stores next week. See you in a few months.

So what does this imply for future growth and stock price? It is amazing that Apple has raked in 20% of all electronics revenues without even operating in some of the more traditional sub-markets (TV, audio, etc.). But that doesn't leave a huge amount of room for growth (unless you expect Apple to own 80% of the entire consumer electronics category). Maybe I'm confused on the definition of "electronics" sales sector?

It leads us to believe that Apple still has PLENTY of room to grow in the US, and HUGE areas for expansion world wide. For instance, the iPhone still isn't even on the largest carrier in China. That carrier alone has 3 times the number of users of AT&T and Verizon combined.

Plus there's the opportunity for Apple to reinvent (or reimagine to their liking) existing markets, just like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad did. Apple probably has some big plans for the future, and that gives them room for growth.

It leads us to believe that Apple still has PLENTY of room to grow in the US, and HUGE areas for expansion world wide. For instance, the iPhone still isn't even on the largest carrier in China. That carrier alone has 3 times the number of users of AT&T and Verizon combined.

Plus there's the opportunity for Apple to reinvent (or reimagine to their liking) existing markets, just like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad did. Apple probably has some big plans for the future, and that gives them room for growth.

Perhaps the biggest growth opportunity for Apple is in (what was once, and will again be) its core business: computers.

The company has currently an incredibly low share of the market in countries like India, China, Russia, and Brazil, all of whom are inexorably getting wealthier. The folks who can afford it won't be caught dead with Dells, Acers, HPs, etc -- they're are going for Apples.

The valuation implications of Apple achieving US-like shares for computers in just these four countries are simply immense.

Bill Gates should thank his lucky stars Apple canned Jobs. I really think we are seeing what would have happened in the 1980s/1990s if Apple had executed. What a different world it would have been.

Are you sure? I've always felt that Jobs needed to be "fired"; he had gotten too far too quick, and young success can ruin a person. Getting "humbled" so to speak matured Jobs and led to him refocusing his vision.

No, that can't be true, because all the experts here keep telling me it only goes down after good news. Either that chart is wrong, or a lot of dummies are pretending to know what they're talking about.

So what does this imply for future growth and stock price? It is amazing that Apple has raked in 20% of all electronics revenues without even operating in some of the more traditional sub-markets (TV, audio, etc.). But that doesn't leave a huge amount of room for growth (unless you expect Apple to own 80% of the entire consumer electronics category). Maybe I'm confused on the definition of "electronics" sales sector?

I thought the stock was getting inflated, but that they've got a huge amount of room to grow in new categories; now from this article it sounds like they're already taking in a huge amount of the field. I realize this is only in the holiday season. But still, 'order-of-magnitude', they can only grow a maximum of 500% (yes, which is huge), and even then only by taking 100% of the market (or growing the segment).

Although it would sure be nice to see Apple-designed toasters and cars and cameras and just about anything with any kind of UI (which is just about everything I guess...).

Not that Apple has significant profits but has done so with the premium end of the market. This means as they saturate an upper-tier they can grow down into the next tier which is always larger.

Imagine a pyramid shape. Other companies have tried to market the low-end in the maxim "race to the bottom" which gets them very little profit sometimes they lose money but gain marketshare in the hopes of gaining mindshare they can eventually grow upward into and capitalize on economics of scale. The two problems with that in the CE market is that you can't maximize economics of scale when you have hundreds of products and you can't gain mind share when even the people that buy your product know it's not good. Every now and then an inexpensive product within a market will actually be of good quality, but not often.

A few products to consider...

PC: Apple takes about 35% of the PC market's profits as of 2009 yet they have done nothing but grow as the rest of the industry shrinks. They also had over 90% of the market share of PC unit sales over $1000. There is little risk of them losing this market and a good chance they will grow it. Perhaps that's what they did with the $999 MBA.

Smartphone: Apple has the bulk of the profits but when you consider the movement from dumb phones to smartphones there is plenty of growth before the number of sold handset will peak. There is also the resale value of the iPhone that helps to many users on new handsets every year instead of holding onto the same device for years.

Tablet: This market is nascent. It will grow on its own but it will also feed off the PC market for years. Some Mac cannibalization but mostly the non-Mac PCs. It will have a decent repeat customer like the other iDevices though not as much due to the higher cost of entry. i suspect that within 2 years the iPad will be more profitable than the iPhone arm of their business.

iPod: This is evidence of a peak being reached. it now makes less each YoY quarter. That said, Apple wasn't sitting still and was thinking about the next thing. I have no idea what that will be after the iPhone and iPad but I suspect it will be something that you wear. I also don't think it will be for at least 5 and probably more like 10 years.

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